Utilizing Facebook
March 13, 2009This week Facebook announced new “Business” pages, so now you can go on to Facebook and have a real “presence” for your station as opposed to having each one of your talents have a page and promoting your station on there.
Now that you can create a station page, I thought it would be a good idea to go over some of the ways to best utilize your Facebook page.
First, I cannot stress enough that the relationship between you and your “friends” needs to be a TWO WAY STREET! This is a crucial part to your success in creating a true social network with your listeners.
What do I mean by having it be a two way street? It’s ok to put a status message promoting something with the station, that’s fine, but when someone comments on it, “I can’t wait for the Second Chance Prom, I’ll see you there!!” comment BACK. They went out of their way to show their excitement for something you are doing…do the SAME!!
Ok, now how can you best utilize Facebook to your advantage and get the biggest bang for your buck?
1.) Treat it as if it is always ON, because it IS. Update it from the station, update it from home, update it from the library, get a smart phone and set it up to be able to post updates from that. The site is always on and your listeners are ALWAYS active on it, so you need to be the same way.
2.) NOTHING is off limits. Did you go shopping this weekend? Upload a picture of your purchases. Maybe you visited with a band backstage? Share those pictures. Are you watching a movie you really like? Update your status to say, “At Benjamin Buttons and it is VERY good.” Share Share Share. That’s what it’s all about.
3.) Reciprocate: Your friends are your friends because they care about what’s going on with your station, but you need to return the favor. Don’t let their pictures go uncommented on. If they post a video that you like, watch it and comment on it. If their status message says something you think is clever, let them know about it. If they come to one of your remotes, tag them in a picture of it.
I now give you permission to use Facebook at work. How do you like them apples. You need to use Facebook at work. Not to kill time, but to connect with your listeners. This is where THEY are living and this is where you need to be living.
Think of it this way, if I told you that EVERYONE in your demo from your market was going to be at the mall this weekend…would you go there? Of course you would. Now I am telling you, everyone from your demo is going to be on Facebook at one time or another throughout a portion of everyday. BE THERE!!
Oh ya and join the Conquering the Developing Marketplace group on Facebook.
